The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7189 p360-364
16 March 2002

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Letters to the Editor

Pharmacogenomics

Are pharmacists to be replaced by the microchip?

From Miss L. Martin

Professor Akhtar's article (PDF* 70K) on pharmacogenomics (PJ, 2 March, p296), was intriguing but raises a few questions in my mind as to the real role of pharmacists in this futuristic scenario.

If the decision as to appropriate prescribing is to be performed by a computer programme, does this mean that the practitioner of the future is to be a microchip? Surely this potentially puts pharmacists back to dispensers as could be extrapolated from the comment "pharmacists are likely to be key players in the dispensing of drugs based on an individual's gene profile".

The anxiety of many pharmacists could then certainly be fulfilled with regard to the world takeover by pharmacy technicians, as pharmacists would be redundant, replaced by the chip.

The other scenario is that we no longer study pharmacy but all move to becoming computer programmers.

Lynn Martin
Third Year Pharmacy Student
University of Brighton

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